John Mecklin

My name is John and I'm an aspiring Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.
I love travel and meeting new people. I got kicked out of my 8th grade spelling bee during the practice round for misspelling the word "dangerous". I broke my ankle after falling off of a bunk bed. I have tinnitus and my ears turn red when I get nervous, these are unrelated.
If you're thinking to yourself, "John is getting a little too personal for the biographical portion of a wordpress account.", you should see me on job interviews and tinder dates.

Posts

If you follow the paths that I lay out for you below, be prepared to experience incredible moments that are unique to the home of the blues. You will have the chance to watch a heard of American Bison roam, experience the vastness of a 32-story glass pyramid, and enjoy the rambling surge of the south’s most prolific trade river. I hope you enjoy the hidden gems of Memphis as well as the opportunities to re-wild yourself that they provide.

I fought it hard. I couldn’t imagine living in a world in which I got off trail for any reason other than a severe injury or a family emergency. I had, after all, put YEARS of planning and hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars into this venture. Didn’t I have a right to live my dream. Besides, they were asking us to self-isolate, I was in the woods, wasn’t I? I was as isolated as I could be.

I refuse to think too hard about the what-if’s and the might-be's, but I don’t refuse to acknowledge their existence. There is also something very visceral and primitive about the unknown. There is a healthy fear of the shadows in the tall trees of the future, something that makes me conscious of my actions and aware of my surroundings.

Obviously, I want to finish a thru-hike. I’m not hopping on the trail all willy-nilly and just seeing what happens. I have a clear and defined goal for the next six or so months, but I feel that my goal and my intent don’t necessarily have to be the same thing.

I think it’s because stagnation has a different meaning for every person, and while the repetition of certain actions may be a defining feature for some people, stagnation has much more to do with the environment for me personally.